Eastern Argus & Borough of Hackney Times.
Saturday, 11 August 1888.
Brutal Murder of a Woman.
At about ten minutes to five o'clock on Tuesday morning John Reeves, who lives at 37, George Yard Building, Whitechapel, was coming downstairs to go to work when he discovered the body of a woman lying in a pool of blood on the first floor landing. Reeves called in Constable Barrett, 26 H, who was on the beat in the vicinity of George Yard, and Dr. Keeling [Killeen], of Brick Lane, was communicated with and promptly arrived. He immediately made an examination of the woman, and pronounced life extinct, giving it as his opinion that she had been brutally murdered, there being knife wounds on her breast, stomach and abdomen. The body, which was that of a woman apparently between thirty-five and forty years of age, about 5 ft. 3 in. in height, complexion and hair dark, wore a dark green skirt, a brown petticoat, a long black jacket, and a black bonnet. The woman is unknown to any of the occupants of the tenements on the landing on which the deceased was found, and no disturbance of any kind was heard during the night. The body was removed to the Whitechapel mortuary, and Inspector Elliston, of the Commercial Street police-station, placed the case in the hands of Inspector Reid, of the Criminal Investigation Department.
The superintendent of the buildings - a block of model dwellings - Mr. Francis Hewitt, has made the following statement:- When I was called this morning, shortly before five o'clock, I saw the poor woman lying on the stone staircase, with blood flowing from a great wound over her heart. There were many other stab wounds of a frightful character on her. Up till half-past three this morning some of the occupants here passed up the staircase, and therefore the murder must have taken place after that, for she was not there then. It is my belief that the poor creature crept up the staircase, that she was accompanied by a man, that a quarrel took place, and that he then stabbed her. Although the deceased is not known by name, her face is familiar. She is undoubtedly an abandoned female.
An inquest on the body was held by Mr. Geo. Collier, at the Working Lads' Institute, Whitechapel, on Thursday, when the medical evidence given by Dr. Keeling was to the effect that he found 39 punctured wounds on the body, and that deceased had bled to death.
The inquest is adjourned.
